by Suzanne Hanson, Fargo, North Dakota, USA Merriam-Webster defines the word ‘soul’ as the immaterial essence, animating principle, or actuating cause of an individual life. The actuating cause of an individual life—what is veganism if not that which moves us to the core of our being? Today, we can be a vegan anything—doctor, lawyer, therapist, dishwasher, […]
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Lyra Alves, Belgium (Brazilian living in Belgium for 15 years) I was brought up in a very carnivorous environment in Brazil. My father strictly made sure my brother and I ate all kinds of foods. I remember my brother crying, looking at his food on the table, saying that the chicken on his plate was […]
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Ramilyn P. Delposo, Philippines … There was a time when a girl, with her family, grew chickens. She trapped one or two to sell for money or dinner. She wove coconut leaves and made them into chicken nests. Some of the eggs were for breakfast – boiled or scrambled. The rest were kept for meat […]
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Anke Hagen, Hanover, North Germany I grew up in South Africa and experienced a number of transformative, life-changing events at an early receptive age, like trying to bargain with a female witch doctor who worked for my parents when she wanted to slaughter some chickens in our garden, whom she had “procured” for her magic. […]
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Carol Williams, United Kingdom I was raised to eat animals, just like most children in our society. I spent 58 years condemning sentient beings to lives of ruthless exploitation that would end in brutal death. For a few years I was vegetarian and then lapsed back into my old habits. I have no excuses for […]
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Tim Oseckas, Melbourne, Australia For 25 years I had been living my life like most other people in my culture and society, consuming the flesh from other animals, their milk, their eggs, their honey, wearing their skin, wearing hair taken from their bodies, using products tested on their bodies, and didn’t really reflect on the […]
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Susan Cho, Chicago, USA I will always be vegan: Because of the bear trapped in a tiny cage, continuously drained of the bile so prized by humans. The elephant whose family was shot so she could be used in a circus. The lobster who had been guarding her children when she was trapped and boiled […]
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by Alannah Quinn, Brisbane, Australia There was a time when I was unconscious, wrapped up in superficial wants. My mind was fixed on my materialistic needs. I existed purely in a little bubble of simple self, warm in the comfort of my easy ignorance and unable to see the horrific truths of the world through […]
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Have you ever looked into the eyes of a sow? She is not the “mere animal” you think you know. She senses and smells your presence. She can see your silhouette cast against the light. She advances, timidly, and seeks your eyes. Her orbs measure you, depose your shield of solid convictions and seek the empathic spark that is dormant within you.

I was born into a fog. That hazy, dreary, fog surrounded me. Everyone around me was part of that same dark haze. So normal and right it seemed to be. I never questioned, never pondered, a non-murky life. I thought life was good, and fair, and just.